March 5, 2014

Our 5th annual Performance Charrette brings together Dance, Digital Media, Photography, Film, Fashion Design, Entertainment & Arts Management and, actually all Drexel students for a weekend of intensive, interdisciplinary, multimedia performance and design collaboration to solve challenges within given parameters. This year’s Charrette, “Interwoven,” is based on Philadelphia-based artist, dancer and photographer Lindsay Browning’s work with Italian Fashion Designer Sonia Biacchi. The Charrette takes place April 4 through April 6, culminating with a free performance on Sunday, April at 6 p.m. in the Mandell Theater.

Browning, whose photography work has appeared in The New York Times, City Paper and PhotoReview HQ, will integrate costumes into the performance elements of the Charrette’s using designs from our Fashion students. She will give a free performance demonstration and lecture about Biacchi’s work on Thursday, April 3 at 7:00 p.m. in Main Building Room 418 to kick off the Performance Charrette. Biacchi is known for creating experimental costumes for avant-garde dance performances. Her tri-dimensional plastic structures wrap up dancers’ bodies, limit their movements and change their bodies, creating a mechanical effect as the designs shift with the body.

Dance Prof. Tania Isaac, who is helping direct the April 6 performance, will try to get Charrette participants to create objects for the performance space with a similar design to Biacchi’s work. Isaac has also invited “embedded” creative writers and Photography and Film &Video students to Charrette weekend to record the weekend experience on a live blog (Click here to visit the blog site) and to help optimize the performance space. “We want to project images during the performance, but not on flat screens,” says Isaac. “I’d like to project surfaces at multiple depths and the natural texture of the Mandell Theater’s walls and ceiling in keeping with the idea of functional and aesthetic design purposes.”

Students from all disciplines are invited to be a part of the Performance Charrette and Isaac is still looking for dancers, choreographers, actors, digital media creators, electrical engineers, musicians, fashion designers, photographers, filmmakers, and more. Some meals provided for participants. Any Drexel student interested in participating can click here to sign up, or Email Tania Issac at taniaissaac@drexel.edu for more information.